


Every Lesson

by Badassium1970



Category: Game Grumps
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Collage, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-06
Updated: 2016-07-06
Packaged: 2018-07-22 00:23:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7411084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Badassium1970/pseuds/Badassium1970
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>College was meant to be amazing to Ross. Firstly, he had moved from Australia to America meaning he got to meet his friend Arin in person for the first time. Things had gone great and they got on just as well in person as they had online. Secondly, he was able to do animation more frequently and was leaning a lot of new skills. He also took theoretical physics because he found it interesting. That was a mistake.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Every Lesson

College was meant to be amazing to Ross. Firstly, he had moved from Australia to America meaning he got to meet his friend Arin in person for the first time. Things had gone great and they got on just as well in person as they had online. Secondly, he was able to do animation more frequently and was leaning a lot of new skills. He also took theoretical physics because he found it interesting. That was a mistake.

The first lesson hadn’t gone that bad. His professor was incredibly attractive, or at least he thought so, maybe he just had a thing for older men. However, everyone in the class were extremely intelligent and had a lot more knowledge on the subject. It seemed that Dr. Wecht became aware of this very quickly and began asking Ross more and more questions that he hardly ever knew the answer to. Most of the times the questions were about things they’d never done before, and the ones that were about things they’ve learnt seemed to be trick questions. 

Brian constantly made fun of him and the class just laughed. At first Ross figured it would stop after a week or two but after a month it was obvious that this wasn’t going to stop. It caused Ross to lose interest in the class but he couldn’t drop it. The textbooks had been expensive and he didn’t want to disappoint his parents either. He tried his best but soon just began drawing during that class and barely attempted answering Dr. Wecht’s stupid questions. Sometimes his teacher would take his sketch book away, forcing him to do the work he no longer had any understanding of, other days he would settle on humiliating the younger man, especially when he admitted to not being able to do the work, finding it really difficult. The added bullying meant Ross stopped asking for help, and just started drawing in his work book and failed any tests given, no longer caring. Skipping class became an appealing idea but he never did it. College was expensive and he didn’t want any of the money paid to go to waste, plus it felt as if Dr. Wecht and the rest of the class had won if he just gave up. Showing his face every lesson was a way of telling them that they hadn’t beaten him yet, that he still had confidence. 

He didn’t though. The class had drained him of any confidence he had. He had anxiety in high school, but during the summer that had faded a lot, the move helping a lot, but now it was back. Arin could tell something was up with his friend but when he asked Ross just said he was home sick or stressed. The latter was truthful at least. After every class with Dr. Wecht he ended up in tears. On days when he had the dorm to himself he spent his time crying there and on days when Arin was in the dorm he would go to the end of the field and hid in the bushes and trees until he calmed down. 

It was after a particularly harsh lesson that Arin found out what was going on. 

Ross’s day already wasn’t going well, he hadn’t been feeling well and he had gotten behind on his animation project meaning he was spending a lot of his spare time trying to get to the point he was meant to be at. His sleep schedule had fallen apart and Dr. Wecht caught him falling asleep and acted as if he was lazy. Honestly it wasn’t the worst thing he’d said, however Ross was running on two hours sleep. He kept his tears back in class although he found it a lot more difficult due to being over tired. When he went back to his dorm he’d forgotten that Arin was going to be there, and he didn’t appear to be in the dormitory. Ross burst in to tears, thinking he was alone and when he heard the toilet flush he tried to calm down but couldn’t. 

Arin, being the great friend he was made sure to comfort Ross before asking any questions. They cuddled for a while and Ross just let himself cry for a while, it was what he needed. After he calmed down Arin asked him what was wrong. Ross felt embarrassed. When he first started Dr. Wecht’s class he bragged to Arin about how hot the professor was and how he was going to get somewhere. He wanted to appear cool to Arin, why, he wasn’t sure. It wasn’t as if Arin cared if Ross was cool or not. The problem was that Arin kept joking, asking if he had gotten anywhere yet, and Ross lied and said things were going great and he would make up conversations that he wished he could have with his professor. He admitted that he was lying the whole time and told Arin what actually happened during lessons.

“Ross, you should talk to Dr. Wecht about this, or tell any other teacher, seriously he’s bullying you.” Arin wasn’t really that shocked, when he was younger he had teachers who told him his art work was crap and one teacher even ripped up his drawing, yes he was meant to be doing work but that didn’t justify how extreme the reaction was.

“No, seriously Arin, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it, he’s only joking, I’m being stupid.”

Arin stared at Ross, his eyes narrowed for a moment but softened. He knew Ross had anxiety in high school, it was clear that he hadn’t really gotten over it yet.

“How many times have you cried after class with him?”

Ross buried his head in Arin’s t-shirt, trying to hide the fact that he was blushing. He mumbled a reply into Arin’s chest. Arin didn’t actually hear it, but he was pretty sure he knew the answer anyway. 

“If this happens after every lesson you need to do something about it.”

Ross knew Arin was right, but he didn’t want to get Dr. Wecht in trouble. He was a good teacher and if he was being completely honest the college was lacking quality teachers, he was lucky he’d taught himself a lot about how to do animation beforehand because he would be screwed otherwise. He also hated to admit it, but he still found his teacher incredibly attractive even if he made him feel shitty a lot of the time. Maybe he had Stockholm syndrome, although he wasn’t being forced to stay around Dr. Wecht or anything like that so maybe that wasn’t the case. Whatever it was Ross hated it, especially since it led to him not talking to his professor or anyone else about how upset he was. It also led to him lying to Arin again, telling his friend that he sorted everything with Dr. Wecht and that he apologised. He told Arin that classes were going okay and that he liked the subject again. Ross made sure to never cry in front of Arin again, and faked happiness a lot of the time. The year was passing fast enough, Ross figured he could get through the rest of the year without too much hassle. 

He was wrong. 

It was his birthday, which also meant it was nearing the end of the school year and Ross was kind of impressed that he had lasted so long without getting caught again by Arin. He hadn’t quit Dr. Wecht’s class either, nor had he missed a lesson unless he was legitimately ill. Unfortunately, that meant he had class with Dr. Wecht today.   
It was going okay at first, his professor hadn’t said anything yet and Ross was getting away with just sketching in his notebook, thinking that Dr. Wecht might be going easy on him since it was his birthday. That wasn’t the case. 

Dr. Wecht asked Ross a question but the student didn’t hear, too caught up in drawing a cue little cat girl. 

“Mr. O’Donovan, being the birthday boy does not grant you special treatment.” Brian was now in front of Ross causing him to jump. Hot shame ran down his neck and he knew everyone was looking at him. 

“If you aren’t going to pay attention I think it would be best for you to leave. This is a waste of both of our time, you obviously have no interest in being here and I don’t appreciate being ignored.”

Ross clenched his fists as he rose from his set. 

“Well I don’t appreciate people making assumptions about me.” His tone was venomous; he had never let this amount of anger out before but he was tired of being a door mat.

“Don’t talk back to me.” When Most teachers say that they shout, Dr. Wecht on the other hand sounded smug as he began to walk away and continue teaching.

“I wouldn’t have to if you weren’t such a fucking dick.”

The room fell silent, the only sound heard was Ross grabbing his bag and his footsteps as he left the room. He remained as calm as he could, not giving Dr. Wecht any more satisfaction in seeing him break apart. 

Ross ran to the end of the field; it was raining heavily but he didn’t care. He hid in the bushes and trees and did nothing but cry. 

After maybe ten minutes Ross heard someone coming towards him. He tried to hide more but didn’t really care too much, he had already been humiliated.

“Ross.”

He knew who that voice belonged to, but there was no where he could go, he was stuck here, crying in front of his professor. Suddenly he felt a jacket being wrapped around him, he hadn’t even realised he was shivering until now. He knew Dr. Wecht was now sitting next to him but Ross just kept looking forward. 

“I’m sorry, I went too far today.” 

Ross would never have expected an apology from this man, and maybe he should have just taken it, but one apology wasn’t enough for almost an entire school year of pain.

“It wasn’t just today; it happens every lesson.” He glared at Dr. Wecht who seemed shocked. 

“You… I didn’t realise I was hurting you so much, I…” 

“It doesn’t matter whether you hurt me or not you shouldn’t have been saying that shit anyway!” Ross inwardly cringed as his voice cracked and tears continued to roll down his face.

“I… okay I could give you a million excuses why I did it, I could tell you the truth but even that doesn’t justify what I’ve been doing, but I want you to know I’m sorry.” 

Ross didn’t say anything, he wanted to forgive Dr. Wecht, and he knew it was partly his fault for letting him get away with it for so long. 

“I want to forgive you Dr. Wecht, but I just, I dunno I guess this has been going on for a while.”

“Call me Brian, it’s outside of class time well I mean it isn’t but I let everyone out early so I guess it is. I don’t expect you to forgive me, I’ve treated you like shit for practically a year now. Why didn’t you tell someone?”

Embarrassment hit Ross harder than it did when he admitted how he had lied to Arin. 

“There aren’t many good teachers at this school and I didn’t want you to lose your job.”

Brian smiled and Ross felt his heart start beating faster. He’d never seen his teacher smile like that before, a genuine smile. It made him think that maybe he didn’t enjoy making fun of Ross that much. 

“That’s very sweet of you.” Ross could feel his face turning red as Brian said that. He had never seen his teacher act like this before, he didn’t seem like the type to act like this.

“I looked at your drawing by the way and they’re really good. I was going to bring your book with me but I didn’t want it to get ruined in the rain.” Ross felt a sense of pride and smiled slightly.

“Thank you.” 

They sat in silence for a while, the rain had stopped but it was still freezing and Ross started shivering again. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Brian moving slowly as if he was having conflicting thoughts about what to do. He wrapped his arms around Ross, and the student knew he shouldn’t think anything of it other than Brian trying to keep him warm but he couldn’t stop his mind creating all kinds of scenarios. Ross felt himself melt into Brian’s body wondering how he was so warm. 

“So, Brian, um, why were you making fun of me? You said you had a reason.” Ross felt his teachers body tense up.

“Ross, I think it would be best if you didn’t know.” 

The younger man pushed himself away from Dr. Wecht, instantly feeling how cold it actually was. He stood up, grabbing his bag, and went to leave, but not before giving Dr. Wecht a piece of his mind. 

“You know I think that considering what I’ve been going through I deserve to know, but fine, I would hate for you to feel uncomfortable.” Ross could feel his heart breaking, he thought maybe he’d gotten somewhere but people don’t change, he should know this by now.

Brian knew he couldn’t let Ross leave like that, especially since he was trying to apologize.

“Ross wait. Brian cried as he stood.

“Look I’ll tell you it’s just I’m afraid about how you’ll react but if you must know, I just, I find you really cute and I thought if I pointed out your flaws then it might help me get over you, but a lot of the stuff I said, such as you being unintelligent, weren’t true and it didn’t help anyway, no matter how much I wanted it to.”

Ross looked sceptical, and Brian was incredibly nervous. A lot was on the line right now. This information could get out and that would probably cost him his job.

“Are you fucking with me because if you are I swear I will fucking murder you.”

Brian wanted to laugh, Ross looked as if he couldn’t even harm a fly but he sounded so pained, a sense of fear in his voice, as if this kind of thing had happened before.

“I mean it. I know I’ve said a lot of terrible things but I would never lie about this.” 

Ross walked towards Brian nervously. He wanted to kiss him but he was scared in case he was lying; this kind of thing had happened before when the students at his old school found out he was gay. 

“Then kiss me.” 

Brian was hesitant, he knew he could get fired for this since Ross was his student. Ross sighed, his blue eyes filled with sadness as he looked at his teacher. 

“That’s what I thought.” He went to leave but Brian grabbed his waist, turning him. His lips met the younger man’s. Ross was too shocked to do anything and soon Brian broke the kiss, mistaking Ross’s lack of actions as disinterest. 

“I’m sorry.” 

Ross shook his head. 

“It’s okay,” he whispered, leaning in again. 

“Ross we can’t do this, you’re my student. I could get fired.” 

“I won’t tell anyone, plus it’s not like it’s illegal. What if I dropped your class, I’m not doing well anyway and at this point I can’t catch up at this point anyway.”

His eyes were so hopeful and it hurt Brian but he had to let Ross know.

“It doesn’t matter, as long as you go to this school I can’t date you, and if I do it in secret the repercussions will be worse.” 

The sad look in Ross’s eyes broke Brian’s heart. 

“Wait for me, please. I know a year is a long time and if you meet someone else that’s fine but I…”

“I’ll wait for you, I promise.” 

Brian kissed Ross again, as if to seal the promise. 

“Plus technically you’re not in school during summer,” Brian muttered against Ross’s lips.

Needless to say that was probably the best summer of Ross’s life. Ross admitted that he didn’t want to drop Brian’s class so the older man tutored him, which Ross didn’t mind since he found it interesting. He also got laid, he couldn’t brag about it to anyone yet, but in a year Arin would never hear the end of it.


End file.
